21 October 2010

Size of Group : Unlimited This Icebreaker can be used in many group sizes from 1: 1 to 100+. If you do have more than 20 then split your teams into groups of no more than 20.

Materials Required : A4 Paper and Pen per team member

Aim of the Icebreaker : This Icebreaker helps to boost confidence and motivation of every team member. It helps to bring the team together, boost morale and team spirit and encourages each of them to feel valued within their team.

Pre-Organisation

None

Process

Give each team member a piece of paper and a pen and ask them to write their name in the middle of it.

Then ask them to draw a sunshine around their name with the number of lines to match the number of team members in the group, including themselves.

Each team member then passes their sunshine to the person on their right and that team member will write something positive about that person on one of the lines.

That team member then passes the sunshine to the person on their right and so on.

The sunshines are passed around the team anti clockwise until the whole team has written something positive on each sunshine about every team member.

Once completed the sunshine is passed back to their owner and they write something positive about themselves. (You can miss this part out but I feel this encourages self confidence and awareness and encourages every team member to also appreciate themselves as well as everyone else).

Every team member then reads out their sunshine to the rest of the group.

Conclusion

This is a really rewarding icebreaker and helps create a wonderful positive atmosphere within the team and your training room. It helps not only boost self confidence and motivation but also increases team spirit, team bonding and team motivation.

You could display the sunshines in the staff room or by the team members desks / work station to give them a constant reminder of how great they are.

Variation

This icebreaker could be used within 1:1’s, interviews and appraisals where the individual completes the sunshine themselves or the Manager completes it for them.

Aim of Icebreaker: To encourage participation and teamwork within the group and to enhance communication skills

Pre-Organisation: None

ProcessGive each team member 6 strips of blank paper and ask them to write a different famous person on each one. They must then fold the piece of paper twice so will not fall open easily. Once they have all done this, they put their pieces of paper into the biscuit tin. You must then split the group in to teams of 5 or 6 and the teams are to sit together. One person in Team A starts. You start the stopwatch.

The first person has to pick a strip of paper out of the tin and explain to their own team who that person is without saying their name. Once their team has guessed that person correctly then they put that strip of person to the side and take out another piece and explains again who that person is. When one minute is up you shout STOP and the biscuit tin is passed to Team B. If a team member does not know who the person is on the piece of paper then they can put it back folded into the tin. They are only allowed to do this 3 x per go. You must be keep score of the number of correct guesses each team has and the winning team is the team with the highest score.

ConclusionThis exercise will energize the group and encourage communication between team members. You need to be a strict judge and that you keep an eye on when the stopwatch reaches one minute and to ensure that there is no cheating!!

VariationsYou could use this game as a consolidation of the session where you write on the pieces of paper a word or a new tool that they have learnt and they have guess what you are trying to explain.

Aim of Icebreaker: To increase positivity, motivation and boost self confidence within a team.

Pre-Organisation: None

ProcessGive each team member a piece of paper and a pen and ask them to write their name in the middle of it. They are then to draw a sunshine around their name with the number of lines to match the number of team members in the group.

The sunshine is then passed around the group anti-clockwise and each team member will write something positive about that person on a line. Each team member passes round their sunshine.

ConclusionThis game ends once every person has written on every sunshine. This will help to boost the confidence for every team member encouraging them to feel valued in their team.

17 February 2009

Aim of Icebreaker: To have a bit of fun and getting the delegates to introduces themselves within the group.

Pre-OrganisationNone

ProcessPass around a large bag of M&M’s.Tell the participants to take as many as they want but try to make sure they do not eat them before counting them.

Once all the participant have M&M’s, tell them that for each M&M they took they have to reveal one thing about themselves. For instance, if a participant took 10 M&M’s, they would have to say 10 things about themselves. They can cover work or personal information.

ConclusionThis exercise allows the group to get to know each other and more facts about each other.N.B Please be aware of any food allergies

Alterations: I have also played this with a roll of toilet tissue! :-)

13 February 2009

Aim of Icebreaker: To create an understanding of how people should greet and communicate with others in different situations and how they should read others reactions.

Pre-Organisation

None

Process

Split the group into pairs and ask them to turn to their partner and greet them as they would normally greet someone they were meeting for the first time. After 2 minutes, ask the group to turn to their partner again and greet them as though they do not want to be in the session and they want to be anywhere else but sitting next to them and talking to them.

Tell them that they can exaggerate their greetings as much as they wish.

After a further 2 minutes, ask everyone to greet their partner as though they are their long lost friend who they haven’t seen for absolutely years and they are so excited that they have had the chance to see them again.

After another 2 minutes, ask the group to now greet their partner as though their partner has just heard some really sad news.

After 2 more minutes, ask the group to now greet their partner as if they have just told you that you have won $10 billion in the lottery! You are over the moon!!

Now bring the group back together and run through the following discussion points:

Take scenario 1 and ask these questions

• How were they greeted in each scenario? (Go through the scenarios)

•

How did they feel when they were being greeted in this scenario?

•

What reactions did they have towards their partner when they were being greeted?

Then repeat the questions for the rest of the scenarios.

Then discuss:

•

Why is it important to choose your style of greeting style to meet the different situation?

Conclusion

You can use this icebreaker at any stage in your session. It helps to create an understanding of different situations and how people should react in each circumstance. This exercise is good to bring into communication sessions.